Cloud-Native vNext: WebAssembly in Azure and AKS

WebAssembly is the next big thing on the server and in the cloud. With WebAssembly we can drive hardware utilization and reduce cloud spendings dramatically. In Azure we can run WebAssembly workloads in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and combine both: Containers and WebAssembly. Join this talk by Azure MVP and cloud-native enthusiast Thorsten Hans to get those questions answered. It’s time to embrace the platform of the future.

Transcript

1. Cloud-Native vNext
   WebAssembly in Azure & AKS
   Thorsten Hans
   @ThorstenHans
   Cloud-Native Consultant
   

   View Slide

2. Consultant @ Thinktecture
   #Azure #Kubernetes
   #CloudNative #Docker
   thorsten.hans@thinktecture.com
   thinktecture.com
   thorsten-hans.com
   @ThorstenHans
   Microsoft MVP | Docker Captain
   Thorsten Hans
   

   View Slide

3. • Introduction
   • Let’s meet Fermyon Spin
   • WebAssembly in Azure with AKS
   • Conclusion
   Agenda
   

   View Slide

4. • Introduction
   • Let’s meet Fermyon Spin
   • WebAssembly in Azure with AKS
   • Conclusion
   Agenda
   

   View Slide

5. Key Concepts
   • WebAssembly (Wasm)
   • WebAssembly System Interface (WASI)
   • WebAssembly Gateway Interface (WAGI)
   Introduction
   

   View Slide

6. WebAssembly (Wasm)
   WebAssembly (abbreviated Wasm) is a binary instruction format for a
   stack-based virtual machine. Wasm is designed as a portable
   compilation target for programming languages, enabling deployment on
   the web for client and server applications.
   Introduction
   https://webassembly.org/
   

   View Slide

7. WebAssembly (Wasm)
   Introduction
   fast
   Near native execution performance, leveraging
   available hardware capabilities
   safe
   Wasm is a memory-safe and sandboxed execution
   environment
   portable
   All major browsers support Wasm & multiple server
   runtimes are available
   open
   WebAssembly Text Format .wat can be used to
   learn, read ,debug Wasm
   

   View Slide

8. WebAssembly System Interface (WASI)
   • A standard engine-independent non-web system-oriented API for WebAssembly
   • WASI is here to standardize how Wasm is executed outside of the browser
   • Wasm uses platform agnostic APIs provided by WASI
   • WASI interacts with platform specific APIs
   • WASI aligns with the Wasm promise of being a secure sandbox
   • As developer, WASI is your compilation target cargo build --target wasm32-wasi
   Introduction
   

   View Slide

9. Portability
   Introduction
   https://hacks.mozilla.org/2019/03/standardizing-wasi-a-webassembly-system-interface/
   

   View Slide

10. Security – Before WASI
    Introduction
    https://hacks.mozilla.org/2019/03/standardizing-wasi-a-webassembly-system-interface/
    

    View Slide

11. Security – Before WASI
    Introduction
    https://hacks.mozilla.org/2019/03/standardizing-wasi-a-webassembly-system-interface/
    

    View Slide

12. Security – Before WASI
    Introduction
    https://hacks.mozilla.org/2019/03/standardizing-wasi-a-webassembly-system-interface/
    

    View Slide

13. Security – With WASI
    Introduction
    https://hacks.mozilla.org/2019/03/standardizing-wasi-a-webassembly-system-interface/
    

    View Slide

14. WebAssembly Gateway Interface (WAGI)
    • Use WebAssembly modules as HTTP handlers
    • Think of a hyper-focused microservices runtime
    • Comman Gateway Interface (CGI) implementation
    • HTTP headers become environment variables
    • HTTP payloads are piped to stdin
    • HTTP responses must be written to stdout
    Introduction
    

    View Slide

15. • Introduction
    • Let’s meet Fermyon Spin
    • WebAssembly in Azure with AKS
    • Conclusion
    Agenda
    

    View Slide

16. • Introduction
    • Let’s meet Fermyon Spin
    • WebAssembly in Azure with AKS
    • Conclusion
    Agenda
    

    View Slide

17. • Fermyon Technologies (founded in November 2021)
    • https://www.fermyon.com/
    • ”Pioneering the next wave of cloud computing”
    • Many familiar faces that you may know from Deis Labs (aquired by Microsoft in April 2017)
    • Fermyon is all about WebAssembly on the server and in the cloud
    Who is Fermyon
    

    View Slide

18. • Spin is a runtime that hosts and instantiates Wasm modules when triggers are invoked
    • It leverages the WebAsssembly Component Model
    • Spin is an SDK
    • That provides APIs for common scenarios like outbound HTTP, Redis, PostgreSQL
    • Spin is a developer toolchain
    • For crafting, running, and deploying your applications
    • Spin is language agnostic
    • You can use any language that compiles to wasm32_wasi
    What is Spin
    

    View Slide

19. Hands-On Fermyon Spin
    - Let’s get started with Spin
    Demo
    

    View Slide

20. • Introduction
    • Let’s meet Fermyon Spin
    • WebAssembly in Azure with AKS
    • Conclusion
    Agenda
    

    View Slide

21. • Introduction
    • Let’s meet Fermyon Spin
    • WebAssembly in Azure with AKS
    • Conclusion
    Agenda
    

    View Slide

22. • Microsoft (especially the OSS team in the Azure Division) is already adopting it in AKS
    • https://www.infoworld.com/article/3681853/azure-kubernetes-doubles-down-on-webassembly.html
    • Previously Krustlet (Kubelet written in Rust 🦀) was used to run WebAssembly workloads
    • Microsoft announced the preview of their new WASM story at Ignite 2022
    • Dedicated AKS Node Pools support wasm32_wasi leveraging runwasi
    • runwasi is used in conjunction with containerd-shims for SpiderLightning (slight) and Spin 🎉
    WebAssembly in Azure and AKS
    

    View Slide

23. • TBH: its still early
    • Plain Container Image is used for distribution
    • As of today, only simple workloads are supported
    WebAssembly in Azure and AKS
    

    View Slide

24. WebAssembly in AKS with Spin
    - Distributing your Spin applications
    - Run a Spin application in AKS
    Demo
    

    View Slide

25. • Introduction
    • Let’s meet Fermyon Spin
    • WebAssembly in Azure with AKS
    • Conclusion
    Agenda
    

    View Slide

26. • Introduction
    • Let’s meet Fermyon Spin
    • WebAssembly in Azure with AKS
    • Conclusion
    Agenda
    

    View Slide

27. • The combination of Containers & WASM will become the default
    • The imapact of Wasm will be way bigger for backend devs compared to frontend devs
    • Running Wasm workloads in the cloud will allow better resource utilization
    • Strict sandboxing (WASI) will enahnce overall platform security and robustness
    • It’s still early – especially in managed Kubernetes (where we’ve limited control)
    • Spin and Fermyon Cloud (or Platform) currently drive developer adoption
    Conclusion
    

    View Slide

28. Thanks for your attention
    @ThorstenHans
    

    View Slide